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TRAVELLER
TALLINN
Words
KATRINAKOLLEGAEVA
Percent of Estonia’s population
that lives in Tallinn
In summer, there’s freeWiFi in
Tallinn’s parks and squares
fromLiverpool and London.
See our insider guide on page
168.
Book online at easyJet.com
Number of cruise ships that
travel toTallinn every year
Number of islands that are part
of Estonia
TALLINN
NEED TO KNOW
TOP FACT
easyJet
FLIES TO
TALLINN
Forget the old cliché of
Soviet-era food. Tallinn
is Europe’s newest – and
perhapsmost surprising
– culinary hotspot
30
300
1,500
EASTERN
PROMISE
I
f someone had told you, even
five years ago, that the world’s
best restaurant would have such
delights as turnips, old carrots
and half-rotten seaweed sitting proudly
on its menu, you’d have been forgiven
for taking that statement with a hefty
pinch of organic sea salt. If they had
then said that this restaurant’s home
city of Copenhagenwould also become
the world’s next culinary hotspot,
you would not have been blamed for
laughing themout of the kitchen.
And yet, they were right. That
restaurant is, of course, Noma. And,
since 2010, it has sat atop the culinary
tree, winning plaudits for its innovative
use of locally foraged ingredients and
odd-sounding vegetables; all in lieu
of the heavy sauces and rich, fatty
concoctions associated with classical
cooking. In April this year, it was
again named the best place to eat on
the planet by
Restaurant
magazine,
proving that the style of food it has
pioneered across its homeland and
beyond – calledNewNordic cuisine
(NNC) – is here to stay.
Which is why I findmyself sitting
in a deliciously bright and airy room,
tucking into an exquisite plate of cured
smelts (a local freshwater fish) with
sorrel and garlic. This is NewNordic
cooking at its finest – there’s not a
buttery reduction or flambéed cut of
foie gras in sight, as young waiting
staff bustle to deliver dishes such as
orsotto
(barley risotto) with Jerusalem
artichokes and beetroot pesto, or offer
diners a cool shot of home-made black
chokeberry liqueur as an aperitif.
Youmight be thinking that I’m
somewhere in Copenhagen or
PHOTO JOHANNES HÕIMOJA